President Lee names new chief of human rights commission

SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak Thursday named Hyun Byung-chul as the new head of the National Human Rights Commission after its former chief stepped down last month amid conflict over a government-initiated downsizing of the watchdog.

Hyun, currently head of Hanyang Cyber University, was picked for his ability to
put the organization back in order, an official at the presidential office Cheong
Wa Dae said.
"Hyun is a man with the ability to manage an organization as he has served at
various important posts at the university and that is mainly why he was named the
new head of the commission," Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye told a press
briefing.
Hyun's predecessor, Ahn Kyong-whan, resigned at the end of last month, stressing
that the commission needed to quickly appoint a new chief before the country
begins serving as the rotating presidency of the International Coordinating
Committee of National Human Rights Institutions.